I'm sure the evaluation didn't take into account the ability to go from poor to rich (opportunity and freedom), nor did it count the disadvantage of living where nearby nations may destroy or steal everything you value at anytime.

In fact, take away the U.S. and Norway becomes a fearful and poor former nation, now ruled by Putin.

Reminds me of a story I heard where Milton Friedman was being interviewed by a scandinavian and the interviewer noted, "In scandinavia, we have no poverty." Friedman shot back, "that's interesting. In America we have no poverty among scandinavians, either."

Not too hard to make a paradise if it's nothing but the whitest white people, with free money pouring from an oil spigot.

Hmmm... Pretty Eurocentric list. Of the top 22 countries, only one (Japan, at #10) isn't either a European country or a nation primarily settled originally by the English (Canada, Australia, U.S., New Zealand).

Don't get me wrong - I love Japan. Spent half my life there. Might move back one day. But any ranking that tells you that it's objectively a better place to live for the average schmuck than the US simply isn't using the right metric.

Norwegians use common sense, and not environmental blather to find a plausible way to refuse to drill for oil. Ask the last Governor of Alaska how much oil and gas we are REFUSING to take out of our own northern wilderness. The Knute Rockne approach to winning by tapping that energy usage is highly reccommended and will be put into law the day Sarah Palin and a GOP Congress hit the ground running in 2012, unless The Obamanation and his Pelossiettes have entered into UN treaties to surrender or sovreignty over our own oil.

The linked-story didn't give the precise criteria. Usually these sorts of studies are rigged so that somebody like Norway comes out on top and they will do whatever it takes to keep the US out of the top 10.

And Sweden's ranked that high while attempting to become the first oil-free country.

Anyway, I think a lot of what makes Scandinavian countries so nice is they aren't as crime infested as American cities. I've read that violent crime is down this year in much of America. I don't know about that. I just know that my city of Cleveland has so much daily, off-the-hook barbaric and senseless violence that there are whole neighborhoods where people are literally prisoners in their homes after dark. And no one cares. (At least the violence in Chicago gets the attention of the national media.)

You go to a country like Sweden or Norway and you can walk around without worrying about thug terrorists who will shoot you over nothing.

"You go to a country like Sweden or Norway and you can walk around without worrying about thug terrorists who will shoot you over nothing."

As blake pointed out that is no longer true. Seems as long as a nation is lily white violent crime is low. So much for multiculturalism.

I have a black friend who lived in Sweden for ten years and came back to the States a Republican. I guess he saw the Swedish socialist model as a huge turnoff. And of course their suicide rate is very high. And, the place is BORING. Give me the USA any day. This is the worldwide center of creativity by a large margin.

Another flawed survey. It makes no sense to look at the USA in aggregate. It means Bel Air gets lumped in with South Central and so on. Why can't we look at America in terms of regions instead of as one country which it really isn't?

Oh, it's no longer true that the USA has much more violent crime than Sweden?

Blake linked to an anti-Islam site that had an agenda of demonizing Sweden's Muslim immigrants.

I don't doubt that Sweden has higher crime than it used to, but since I live in one of the most violent cities in the entire industrialized world (where we have more violent crime per capita than Iraq, and some neighborhoods make one think of Mogadishu, Somalia, without the palm trees), I think it's a bit silly to be pointing fingers at Sweden's crime problems.

I have a black friend who lived in Sweden for ten years and came back to the States a Republican. I guess he saw the Swedish socialist model as a huge turnoff.

Unlike your friend, I haven't felt the desire to live in another country. But you suspect your friend returned to the States because he was turned off by socialists. Strange, because in the last 10 years, while America has been becoming more and more socialist, Sweden has been becoming more and more capitalist. Maybe your friend was actually turned off by the resurgance of capitalism in Sweden and ran back to America to enjoy the rise of socialism here!

From Sweden hardly a ‘socialist nightmare’LINK: "...Professor Palmer, who ran a controversial course on globalization at Harvard University from 2000 to 2004, believes that Sweden has been one step ahead of the US in adopting and extending economic reforms.

“'To speak of Sweden as socialist today is pretty far off the mark,” he says. “Neoliberal reforms have gone much further here in some sectors than in the US. Sweden has become a sort of laboratory for privatization in a way that the Heritage Foundation or the American Enterprise Institute could only dream of.'”

---

And of course their suicide rate is very high.

Their suicide rate is about the same as America's (google it), and much lower than countries such as France. I think you're confusing Sweden with Finland on the suicide rate. Also, Sweden ranked in the Top 5 on some Happiness rating jive, whatever that's based on.

And, the place is BORING. Give me the USA any day. This is the worldwide center of creativity by a large margin.

Well, that's nice, but are you saying the reason you stay in America is because we are the center of things? That if, say, India, overtook us in these respects, you'd decide America is now "boring" and it's time to go where the excitement is?

And, anyway, you went to a city like Stockholm and found it boring and filled with uncreative people?

I stay in America because it's my home, it's where my heart is, and because I love shit like our Bill of Rights. Within America, I don't choose to live in New York City, Los Angeles, or any of the other centers of things, so I guess I'm not looking for that sort of excitement except as places to visit.

"Unlike your friend, I haven't felt the desire to live in another country. But you suspect your friend returned to the States because he was turned off by socialists. Strange, because in the last 10 years, while America has been becoming more and more socialist, Sweden has been becoming more and more capitalist. Maybe your friend was actually turned off by the resurgance of capitalism in Sweden and ran back to America to enjoy the rise of socialism here!"

I don't suspect, I know. He said as much. And what makes you think he's recently returned? He's been back for years.

Yes it's true that Sweden is moving right as is most of Europe. What does that tell a genius like you? After four years of Obama trying to cram his radical leftwing agenda down a horrified America's throat we'll be shifting back to the right too.

My friend despises Obama and our headlong rush into Marxism just like I do. He's disgusted the first black president is a naked socialist and an empty suit. He knows he has disgraced the black community.

"Well, that's nice, but are you saying the reason you stay in America is because we are the center of things? That if, say, India, overtook us in these respects, you'd decide America is now "boring" and it's time to go where the excitement is?"

No asshole I didn't say that did I? I am privileged to live in America with it's freedom (so far), diverse peoples and influences, and the concomitant explosion of creativity and prosperity that has resulted. As a musician I don't imagine I'll be moving to India anytime soon.

This is why it's useless to talk to bad faith liars like yourself. You never respond to what is said, rather you twist a persons words as far away from their intent as possible in order to create a false context from which to argue your points.

This is why it's useless to talk to bad faith liars like yourself. You never respond to what is said, rather you twist a persons words as far away from their intent as possible in order to create a false context from which to argue your points.

It's just that your whole thing about calling Sweden "BORING" because it's not as much at the center of things as America sounded like the way, domestically, people in NY and CA talk about "fly-over country".

Yes, God forbid someone points out the shortcomings from the adherents of the religion of peace.

I don't have a problem with people talking about the problems with the Muslim immigrant populations in Europe. But Sweden will have a long way to go before they ever catch up with America's violent crime problem.